Setting Up a Programming Environment Windows (2025) - team1868/1868wiki GitHub Wiki

These are the Windows instructions. If you get stuck, ping the programming slack channel and include the step or command you got stuck on. IF YOU'RE DOING THIS AT LAB DURING THE FIRST WORKSHOP, WE WILL PROVIDE YOU A USB TO DOWNLOAD THESE FILES. OTHERWISE, PLEASE ATTEMPT TO INSTALL AT HOME AND AT LEAST DOWNLOAD THE FRCLibResourcesWindows202532.zip BEFORE COMING TO LAB. DO NOT WAIT UNTIL THE LAST MINUTE! It may take 2-3 hours.

Before starting:

  • Make sure you have admin access on this computer
  • Disable antivirus
  • Save other application work (installation may require restarting computer)
  • Connect to good wifi (LAB WIFI IS NOT GOOD WIFI)

This instruction set will install the 2024 resources for:

  • VSCode with WPILib
  • REV Hardware Clients (Optional)
  • Phoenix Tuner

Additionally, the following command line and version control utilities will also be installed:

  • choco -- a windows package manager, like apt and homebrew
  • git
  • llvm -- includes clang-format
  • pre-commit
  • unzip
  • python
  • pip

Initial instructions (Bare minimum before lab)

  • Download and unzip FRCLibResourcesWindows.zip
    • There now should be a folder with necessary resources at ~/Downloads/FRCLibResourcesWindows202532.

VSCode & WPILIB

Installs WPILIB2025.3.2 with VSCode 1.103.2

  1. In Downloads/FRCLibResourcesWindows202532.zip, open WPILib_Windows-2025.3.2.iso to mount the installer
  2. Open the WPILibInstaller
  3. Inside the installer
    • Select Start
    • Select Install for this User
    • Select Select existing VS Code zip for offline install on this computer and in the pop up file selection window choose VSCode-1.103.2-Windows.zip found in the ~/Downloads/FRCLibResourcesWindows202532 directory.
  4. Click Finish .

Install Visual Studio (skip if already installed in 2024)

  1. In ~/Downloads/FRCLibResourcesWindows202532 run VisualStudioSetup.exe
  2. Select and make sure the Desktop Development with C++ box is checked for installation
  3. Select Install and follower any remaining installer instructions

3rd party WPILib library installers

  1. CTRE Phoenix Framework
    • Use the CTRE_Phoenix_Framework_v25.3.2 application to install all CTRE tools and libraries
  2. Rev Hardware Client (Optional)
    • Use REV-Hardware-Client-Setup-1.7.5 to install REV's hardware toolset

Developer tools and more 3rd part WPILib libraries (skip if already installed)

  1. In ~/Downloads/FRCLibResouresWindows202532 run run-setup-dev-tools.bat
    • This will request for Admin Privileges and run all the installers on Powershell, this might take several minutes to download and install.

Install VSCode plugins

  1. Open VSCode
  2. Select Extensions from the left navigation bar

Extensions

  1. Search for ms-vsliveshare.vsliveshare
  2. Install the Live Share extension
  3. Search for xaver.clang-format
  4. Install the Clang-Format extension
  5. Search for streetsidesoftware.code-spell-checker
  6. Install the Code Spell Checker extension

Clang Format